Gaetti Doesn’t Bash but Does Beat Angels

You pay a guy $6 million over two years not to play baseball for you, and this is the thanks you get?

Gary Gaetti, who had such a miserable Angel career and was deemed so worthless that the team released him in early 1993 with almost two years left on a guaranteed contract, exacted significant revenge on his former employer Saturday night.

Gaetti lined Angel reliever Troy Percival’s first pitch into the left-field bleachers for a two-out, two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the Kansas City Royals a 4-2 victory over the Angels before an announced crowd of 15,587 at Kauffman Stadium.

Gaetti also gained pay back for the relentless booing in Anaheim and the team’s loss of confidence in him that led him to say in 1993, after he had been demoted to utility infielder, “What am I, J.T. Snow’s caddie?”

Gaetti, whose homer ended an 0-for-24 string and the Royals’ four-game losing streak, chose not to rub it in. But he did acknowledge it was “extra special” beating the Angels.

“It was a bad situation there for the last 1 1/2 years,” said Gaetti, who hit .226 in 1992 and .180 in 20 games in 1993 for the Angels. “I can’t say I’m bitter about it, but it just didn’t work out.

“It was a really tough time for me. We didn’t play well as a team there, and that complicates things for individuals. I’d prefer to just go on now and put that experience behind me.”

Percival, the hard-throwing, rookie right-hander who hadn’t allowed a hit in four of his first five outings, had similar sentiments.

“I’ve had success until now, so I’m not going to let one pitch shake me up,” Percival said. “You’re supposed to throw a strike on the first pitch. I did, and he yanked it. That stuff happens.”

Gaetti is an excellent first-pitch hitter--his .359 average when hitting the first pitch in 1994 ranked among the top 10 in the American League in that category--but he didn’t think Percival made a mistake throwing him a first-pitch fastball.

“He went power against power, what’s wrong with that?” Gaetti said. “He can’t hang his head just because someone hit a game-winning home run off him. He just has to learn and go on.”

Gaetti’s homer made a winner of Royal pitcher Kevin Appier, a high-strung, fast-working right-hander who went the distance on a three-hitter and struck out eight. Angel reliever Bob Patterson, who allowed a two-out single to Michael Tucker just before Percival came in, took the loss.

Angel starter Shawn Boskie, continuing to revive a career that seemed stalled a year ago when he played for three teams, gave up only five hits and two runs in 7 2/3 innings. He has a 2.08 earned-run average in three starts.

“I’ve pitched well in spurts, but what I’d like to do this year is not let down,” Boskie said. “Before, I’d pitch two good games and, boom, I’d get crushed. I don’t want that to happen.”

Boskie was good, but Appier was practically untouchable through four innings, retiring the first 12 batters and allowing only one ball to leave the infield.

But Tim Salmon walked with one out in the fifth to break up the perfect game, stole second and scored on Snow’s single to right to tie the score, 1-1.

Kansas City, which scored in the fourth on Greg Gagne’s sacrifice fly, took a 2-1 lead in the fifth when Brent Mayne and Vince Coleman each doubled to left.

The Angels came back to tie the score in the top of the sixth on Tony Phillips’ bases-empty homer to right, but they failed to capitalize on a scoring chance in the eighth.

Spike Owen walked and Gary DiSarcina’s sacrifice bunt attempt bounced off the plate and over Appier’s head for a single. Phillips bunted both runners up, but Damion Easley, swinging on a first pitch that looked inside, tapped back to the pitcher and Myers grounded out to end the inning.

“I stunk,” Easley said. “I swung at a bad pitch.”

Unlike Gaetti.